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On the studio 2019-20

Tutor: Carl Bourgeois en Jasmien Wouters
Engagement: Mediating Tactics
Academic year: 2019-2020

Two barges, flat boats.
One question, architecture?

The boats are the central point of interest.
Their names : Captal and Amundsen

What can 2 times 360 floating cubic meters do with the city?
What can architecture education do with two times 360 floating cubic meters on the water?

As a faculty of Architecture, do we dare to think about building tentacles in the city all by ourselves?
And what should they look like?
What is the power of floating spaces?
How do we fill them in weight so that the waterline reaches the level of the first scuppers?
How do we visualize them so that they shine and blend at the same time?
How do we program their activity?
Is it a studio, a workshop, an exhibition space, an auditorium, a fablab, a residence.

Can we think of it as everything at once?

This studio wants to take the first step: from a hull boat (or two) to this micro-architecture school or field station in the city.
We are the harbinger of a series. The better our intervention, the stronger the evidence that architecture is primarily about the smart preparation of space.

It remains an experiment, but it is not a whim.
The assignment is concrete, the client is known.
The experiment is also part of a series: from the WTC experience in Brussels, over Canal we are now looking for aspects of this nomadic school in Ghent.

The exercise also wants to strengthen relations towards other studios:
-Field station studio and AOB, because of the inspiring character of an open source station as a laboratory for new spacial programs.
-The Wicked habitation studio and AOB that investigates the essence of our being in relation to the given ‘space’ and who will also provide the boat as a case in semester 2.

But we are primarily practical, hands-on, doers, makers. From quick concepts to execution drawings and construction plans to carpentry and assembly of intelligent and multi-purpose space.
Temporary interventions interspersed with fixed optimizations of a boat (or two) that is already full of character.

One project, multiple parts. Enough to challenge you both in design and construction.
Who said the school does not offer real site experience?
Who claims that there is no chance of implementing something that you have designed yourself?

Here we go !

Week 1-3
The weather is still nice: we are working on the casco shelter.
We place a staircase, close a leak, we replace a bottom board, we lay a lick of anti-rust paint.
We get to know the boat in all its details. We provide a clean site layout.
The smarter this first step, the more comfort we will get later.

Week 4 to 6
It’s raining, we design. On the boat or in the studio. As long as we stay warm.

Week 7
We are making decisions: what is utopia, what is achievable.
What is fixed infrastructure, what is temporary?
Which components will be implemented.
Which do we outsource, which do we make ourselves?

Week 8 to 13
It is cold, but it is good as long as we are moving.
Fortunately we have already a roof over our heads.
Maybe a heat gun.
But the smell of freshly sawn wood makes up for everything.

Week 14
Delivery.
From the evaluation of plan sets for future components to the experience of scale 1/1 interventions.